Saturday, November 9, 2024
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Friday, November 8, 2024
Annual holiday parade in Downtown Racine scheduled for Saturday
Annie Pulley
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Bob Graves and Eric Olson with Graves Signs hoist holiday wreaths on light posts throughout Downtown Racine. |
“The Holiday Parade and Tree Lighting are the official kickoff to Racine’s 2024 holiday season,” according to Kelly Kruse, executive director of the Downtown Racine Corporation.
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From left to right, Zedtric Cottingham, Aliah Ramirez, Sean Barry and Jill Meyer with Mileager's garden center work to decorate one of more than 70 planter pots throughout the downtown area. |
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Eric Olson, left, and Bob Graves secure wreaths to light posts ahead of the holiday parade in Downtown Racine. |
Before the parade, visitors are encouraged to gather in Monument Square for live holiday music by carolers, and bands from Horlick Brass Quartet and the Park High School Ensemble beginning around 4:45 p.m.
Performances will continue after the parade, which is scheduled to start about 5:30 p.m. and travel from the west side of the State Street bridge, down Main Street and west on Sixth Street until it reaches City Hall.
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The Annual Downtown Racine Holiday Parade is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 9. |
At 6:50 p.m., attendees are encouraged to rally at Monument Square for the tree lighting ceremony, which will feature Santa Claus.
This year’s festivities also will include a fireworks display.
Starting Nov. 9, visitors to downtown will be able to vote for their favorite window displays as part of the Holiday Window Decorating Contest at facebook.com/racinedowntown. More than 12 businesses are expected to participate.
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Tangles Salon Studio at 304 Main Street shows off its holiday display ahead of the downtown parade and tree lighting ceremony set for Nov. 9. |
Mac, a Masai giraffe and fan favorite at Racine Zoo, has died
Drake Bentley
A Masai giraffe at the Racine Zoo died following age-related health issues, according to a news release from the zoo.
"Racine Zoo is profoundly saddened to announce the passing of Mac, the Masai giraffe," the release states.
"Mac arrived at the Racine Zoo in 2008 and spent his last sixteen years charming guests. Having celebrated his 19th birthday this past August, Mac surpassed the average life expectancy of male Masai giraffes."
The news follows the passing of one of the zoo's longest residents — Yule, a male white-handed gibbon — on Oct. 22.
Mac was also a fan favorite at the zoo. His death is the result of a variety of age-related health issues, including arthritis, which is very common in older male giraffe, according to the zoo. Zoo veterinary and animal care staff humanely euthanized Mac on Tuesday.
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Wednesday, November 6, 2024
Speaker Robin Vos says GOP will continue to 'set the agenda' after holding majorities
Laura Schulte
MADISON – Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said he's looking forward to Republicans continuing to "set the agenda" in the Wisconsin Legislature, despite Democrats flipping seats to their control Tuesday.
In a news conference alongside Assembly Majority Leader Tyler August, Vos said Wednesday that Republicans would likely hold on to their majority with 54 seats in the 99-member body.
More:2024 Wisconsin General Election Results
That number is down from 64 in the last session, with Democrats winning in 10 districts. Democrats also made pickups in the state Senate to bring the GOP majority to 18-15, down from 22-10.
"Now we get the chance to set the agenda for the rest of the state with our colleagues in the state Senate," Vos said.
Democrats fell short of flipping the Assembly in the first election since the state's legislative districts were redrawn, but did manage to narrow the majority Republicans have held for more than a decade. All of the Assembly seats were up for election, many of them with new candidates in the newly drawn districts.
Vos, who is planning to run for speaker again this session, said Democrats only took seats where they gained advantages through redrawn maps Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed into law.
"We were able to win maps drawn by a federal court, a state court, by the legislature and by the Democrats," he said. "So we have won under every scenario that's possible, Democrats have only made gains when they have gerrymandered districts."
August echoed his sentiment.
"I believe if you were to ask most people in the state of Wisconsin if Assembly Republicans would be standing here today at 54 seats, given everything we were up against ― including a gerrymandered map that the governor instilled using his liberal allies on the state Supreme Court — that most people wouldn't believe it," August said. "But we believed we could be here the entire time, and our candidates believed in it too."
More:Donald Trump wins Wisconsin, propelling his return to the White House
The Republican Legislature adopted the maps in place now, saying at the time that the boundaries proposed by Evers were more favorable to Republicans than other options being considered by the state Supreme Court should the decision have gone to them.
The new maps replaced those that were widely regarded as heavily gerrymandered in favor of Republicans and leading to wide majorities for the party lasting more than a decade.
"On what was a tough night for Democrats nationwide, we made key gains in the State Legislature last night — demonstrating the power of the Republican gerrymander that crushed democracy in our state for more than a decade and the strength of Democratic state legislative efforts," Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Ben Wikler said in a statement.
More:Tammy Baldwin wins Wisconsin Senate race in 2024 election over Eric Hovde
Assembly Minority Leader Greta Neubauer said in a statement said that things will change following the new Democratic members being elected.
"We have strong candidates from around the state joining the caucus. Fair maps have allowed voters to hold legislators accountable, and this will change how policy is written and what bills move through the legislature," she said. "I hope and expect that this shift will result in more collaboration and bipartisan work in the legislature, because that is what the people of Wisconsin have asked us to do."
In a call with reporters, Republican Party of Wisconsin chairman Brian Schimming said "Democrats spent the last couple weeks bragging about how they might be able to take over the state Assembly, and they didn't."
"Majorities matter in the Legislature. The Democrats don't have either of them," Schimming said. "The truth of the matter is they had their one moment when they had a huge turnout to take over this year, and they failed in both houses."
Schimming added the party is already looking forward to upcoming races for state Supreme Court, attorney general and governor. Liberals assumed the majority on the Supreme Court with the 2023 election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
The balance on the court is again up for grabs in 2025, with the retirement of liberal Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford, favored by liberals, and Waukesha County Circuit Judge Brad Schimel so far are in the race. Schimel is the former Republican attorney general of Wisconsin.
In the Senate, Democrats picked up four key seats in districts they heavily targeted. Races in the Senate attracted high levels of spending, especially in the 8th District, where Democrat Jodi Habush Sinykin defeated Sen. Duey Stroebel, R-Cedarburg. That race attracted more than $3 million in spending from the candidates, political parties and the campaigns.
Vos said according to estimations, there was an outsized amount of spending in Assembly races, as well. In the 21st District, covering a portion of the southern suburbs of Milwaukee, Rep. Jessie Rodriguez, R-Oak Creek, narrowly defeated the Democratic candidate David Marstellar in another high-spending race fueled by television advertising.
"We think that they probably spent between $3 and $4 million almost entirely on negative advertising, besmirching her record and lying about who she was and how she voted," he said.
In addition to the 8th, Democrats won in the 14th Senate District, where Sarah Keyeski defeated incumbent Republican Joan Ballweg; in the 30th Senate District where Democrat Jamie Wall defeated Republican Jim Rafter; and the 18th Senate District where Democrat Krisitin Alfheim defeated Republican Anthony Phillips.
Orientation for the new members of the Assembly will be held the week of December 9, and the new Legislature will begin its session in January.
Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on X at @SchulteLaura.
Wisconsin passes constitutional amendment requiring citizenship to vote
ANNA HANSEN
Non-U.S. citizens are barred from voting in Wisconsin under a constitutional amendment voters approved in Tuesday's election.
While the Wisconsin Constitution dictates that every U.S. citizen can vote in the state's elections, the Republican-backed amendment tweaks that verbiage to say that only U.S. citizens can vote in Wisconsin's federal, state and local elections.
The Associated Press called the race at 9:42 p.m. With 55% of votes counted, the measure was passing 70.3% to 29.7%. All election results remain unofficial until they’re certified in coming weeks.
Article III Section 1 of the Wisconsin Constitution currently says, "Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district."
The affirmative vote will change that article to say, "Only a United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district."
Wisconsin constitutional amendments have to pass two consecutive legislative sessions and a statewide referendum to be legitimized. Republican lawmakers passed the language change in 2022 and again last year, each time without a single Democratic vote. Gov. Tony Evers can't veto constitutional amendments.
The push for this constitutional amendment was spurred by a number of municipalities across the country allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, including the District of Columbia, although none in Wisconsin.
Six states already have adopted the language change and it’s on the ballot in seven other states besides Wisconsin this election.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
This is when you'll finally stop seeing political ads for the 2024 election in Wisconsin
Steven Martinez
Perhaps the one thing people of all political standpoints can agree on this election season is that all these candidate ads need to stop.
Well, on Election Day, we'll finally get our wish. Some local TV stations have announced the final political ads will run on their broadcasts Tuesday evening. Then we can all go back to seeing David Gruber recite his famous "One call, that's all" slogan over and over again.
WTMJ-TV (channel 4) announced the final political ad is scheduled to run on the station at 4:58 p.m. Tuesday.
The final political ad on WDJT-TV (channel 58) is scheduled to run during the news broadcast at 4 p.m. Tuesday, said Corporate Director of Media Strategy Molly Kelly. About 4:38 p.m. to be exact. The last one on Telemundo Wisconsin is scheduled to run during the show's 5 p.m. news broadcast.
A representative from WISN-TV (channel 12) did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, there technically isn't a time when political ads are required to end, but typically candidate ads stop running after an election. It'll be a much-deserved respite — until the next election.
I'm burned out by this election. I've seen so many political ads and so much political coverage that I could puke. I vote absentee, so I cast my ballot over a week ago. I can't wait for the political noise to die down. As to who will win the presidential election, I consider both major candidates to be pieces of shit. We, the people, are screwed either way.
Harry Wait has hearing in Walworth County for election fraud case
RACINE — Harry Wait, a Union Grove resident facing charges of election fraud, appeared for a hearing in the Walworth County Courthouse on Monday.
Originally charged in Racine County in September 2022, Wait faces two counts of misappropriating ID information and two counts of election fraud.
The charges allege that Wait requested absentee ballots in July 2022 through the My Vote Wisconsin website using the names of Racine Mayor Cory Mason and Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.
According to previous Journal Times reports, Wait reportedly admitted requesting the ballots in an attempt to expose vulnerabilities in the absentee voting system. He pleaded not guilty to all charges Oct. 21, 2022.
Wait's case was assigned to Walworth County Judge Daniel Johnson in August. All hearings will take place in Walworth County, and if the case proceeds to a jury trial, Johnson will relocate to a Racine County courtroom to preside over the trial.
During the hearing Monday, Wait reiterated his belief that the actions of the state and the Racine County court were "nefarious."
On Aug. 23, the Racine County court approved Wait's request to represent himself, and on Nov. 1, Wait filed a motion to dismiss the charges against him. During the Monday hearing, the attorneys for the state asked for time to respond in writing to Wait's motion.
If the case proceeds to trial, it will likely extend beyond January. Wait is scheduled to appear for his next hearing Dec. 11.